Japan's Edo period (1615-1868) was an immensely innovative time. Pictorial culture, traditionally the preserve of courtly elites, was now in demand among new consumers, for whom it both reflected and constructed the changing times. The full range and variety of Edo painting--from charismatic images of the "floating world" to restrained monochromatic literati painting, from so-called "Eccentrics" to classically inflected Rinpa--is truly extraordinary, and yet remains infrequently acknowledged in the West.
Join JASH and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) for an exceptional opportunity to learn more about one of the finest collections of Edo period Japanese art.
Dr. Rachel Saunders, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Curator of Asian Art, Harvard University Art Museums, will discuss Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection, the largest exhibition ever presented at the Harvard Art Museums. Judiciously assembled over more than four decades, the Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg Collection contains over three hundred pieces of art that provide insight into the continuities and disruptions in artistic practice in early modern Japan.
This is a FREE event, with advance registration required. Registrants will receive the viewing link by email on the event day.
ヒューストン日米協会（JASH）は、Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH)と共催で、Harvard University Art Museums (ハーバード大学美術館)に所蔵されている江戸時代の絵画についてのオンライン講演会を開催致します。講師は、同美術館Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Curator of Asian ArtのキュレーターであるDr. Rachel Saundersです。
参加費は無料です。講演会詳細とお申し込みは、下記をご覧ください。
是非多くの皆様のお申し込みをお待ちしています。
REGISTRATION
Thank you for your interest in Of Princes and Painters: Collecting "Japan" at the Harvard Art Museums. This form is now closed. Those wishing to view the program can watch it live on the JASH and MFAH Facebook pages.
About Dr. Rachel Saunders
Rachel Saunders, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Curator of Asian Art, is responsible for the Japanese collections at Harvard Art Museums.
She earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University (2015) and is a specialist in medieval narrative and sacred painting. Saunders has recently curated the exhibitions Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection (2020) and Prince Shōtoku: The Secrets Within (2019).
She was previously a member of the Japanese department of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2004–11), where she worked extensively with early modern rare books. She has held fellowships at the University of Tokyo (2011–14) and at the National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), in Washington, D.C. (2014–15).
-Image and Biography provided by Harvard Art Museums
About Painting Edo:
Painting Edo — the largest exhibition ever presented at the Harvard Art Museums — offers a window onto the supremely rich visual culture of Japan’s early modern era. Selected from the unparalleled collection of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg, the more than 120 works in the exhibition connect visitors with a seminal moment in the history of Japan, as the country settled into an era of peace under the warrior government of the shoguns and opened its doors to greater engagement with the outside world. The dizzying array of artistic lineages and studios active during the Edo period (1615–1868) fueled an immense expansion of Japanese pictorial culture that reverberated not only at home, but subsequently in the history of painting in the West.
By the early 18th century, the new shogunal capital of Edo (present-day Tokyo) was the largest city in the world. After centuries of conflict and unrest, the growing stability and affluence of the period encouraged an efflorescence in the arts. Artists creatively juxtaposed past and present, eternal and contingent, elegant and vulgar in a wide range of formats and styles, from brilliant polychrome compositions to monochromatic inkwork. Painting Edo explores how the period, and the city, articulated itself by showcasing paintings in all the major formats—including hanging scrolls, folding screens, sliding doors, fan paintings, and woodblock-printed books—from virtually every stylistic lineage of the era, to tell a comprehensive story of Edo painting on its own terms.
An illustrated publication accompanies the exhibition. Painting Edo: Selections from the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art is a sweeping and lavishly illustrated overview of a transformative era in Japanese art-making as told through highlights from the finest private collection of Edo period painting in the United States.
This program is part of the Richard J. Wood Art Curator Series, which is supported, in part, by an award from the National Association of Japan America Societies with funds from the Japan-United States Friendship Commission.
